


The best journeys take you home

by CalmBeforeAStorm



Series: Like Stars [2]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Catarina pov, Gen, Indonesia, Korean War, Magnus and Catarina friendship, Magnus is a little homesick, Ragnor Fell is briefly mentioned, fluff?, i love Catarina okay, oh jesus what else do I tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 23:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7777390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalmBeforeAStorm/pseuds/CalmBeforeAStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celebrating three hundred years of friendship, Catarina cooks Magnus dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The best journeys take you home

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of short, but anyway.

**1951**

Catarina made herself busy in her small, chaotic kitchen, putting the rice on to cook and simultaneously trying to find the bottles of beer she’d bought and stashed a week ago. Outside, the lights of Pusan were beginning to glow. She’d arrived here several months ago to join the MASH unit supporting the soldiers at the Pusan Perimeter. After, she’d stayed behind to work at one of the city’s hospitals, helping to treat and care for hundreds of Korean refugees. She’d bought this tiny flat then, but had hardly spent any time in it at all, mainly using it for sleep. She was looking forward to taking the time to relax with dinner and an old friend.

Magnus was due to arrive within the next few minutes; that was assuming he wasn’t held up in the city. Entering a warzone could be tricky business, even if you portalled in. However, Catarina had no doubts whatsoever in her friend’s ability to charm the socks off any UN official who tried to detain him.

She was surprised he had volunteered to come to her, actually. She had offered to portal to Magnus’ current home – in Tangier – but he had decided to make the trip out to her, deciding it had been “far too long” since he had last been in Asia. Secretly, Catarina was convinced that he just didn’t want to trouble her.

They’d known each other three hundred years, now. That was why Catarina had proposed this little get-together. She mused on this as she checked the state of the rice and grabbed some glasses to set out.  Three hundred years. They’d seen each other through a lot of highs and lows in that time. She could still remember the dry, hot day in Spain when they’d first met, all those years ago. She could never have imagined how important a part he would come to play in her life.

There was a knock on the door. Catarina smiled.

She stepped her way carefully through her small living room and opened the door. Magnus immediately pulled her in to a hug, and Catarina gripped him tightly, inhaling his familiar sandalwood scent. When they pulled back, she took the time to take a proper look at him. It had been nearly five years since they’d last seen each other.

The Moroccan climate suited him, she could see. His skin was tanned a darker brown than when she’d last seen him in New York. He’d had his nose re-pierced too (Catarina thought back to the night, in the 20’s, when he’d first had it done – both of them, and Ragnor, having had much too much to drink. The next morning, none of them could remember going to get it done, and they’d had a good laugh about it after the initial shock). His un-glamoured eyes shone in the darkness of the corridor.

He laid a hand along her jaw and stroked his thumb over her cheek.

‘You look tired, Cat’

She smiled.

‘Funny, I was just thinking about how well _you_ looked’

Magnus laughed as she tugged him into the flat and closed the door behind him.

‘Darling, I _always_ look well’

She couldn’t argue with that. She got him sitting down at the table, and gratefully took the expensive-looking bottle of wine he’d brought. She could never afford anything as nice as that. They’d have it later. She wandered into the kitchen to check the food.

‘Any trouble getting here?’

‘No. Got a little lost at one point a few streets from here, but I asked for directions and a nice young woman was able to point me in the right direction’

Ha. Catarina could vividly imagine the level of flirtation that must have went on in _that_ conversation. It was a wonder Magnus had arrived on time.

‘Don’t tell me you speak Korean?’ The one language she thought she’d be able to one-up him in.

‘Of course, my dear. You’ll get me some day, don’t you worry’

She laughed. Trust Magnus to pick up on the little language competition she had started in her head.

‘The food smells lovely. May I ask what it is?’

Catarina smiled at him as she re-entered the room.

‘Not yet. It’ll be ready in about ten minutes, I think’

They chatted for a little while as they waited. Catarina told him all about the war and the hospital. Magnus told her about the travels he’d been taking in North Africa, and the trip he’d taken back to Madrid. She asked him how much it had changed since he’d grown up there.

After ten minutes or so, she excused herself and went to serve the dinner. She ladled the rice out on to the plates and gathered up the various side dishes she’d made, fitting them on to the edges of the plates. Carrying them in, she set the plates down on the table nervously. As she sat down and opened the bottles of beer, Magnus stared, shocked at his plate.

‘Is this _nasi uduk_?’

She smiled, wondering if she’d done the right thing by choosing an Indonesian dish for their dinner. She’d found the recipe in an old cookbook from the tiny bookshop around the corner, and was able to gather up the required ingredients easily enough.

‘Yes. Is that okay? I hope I got it right’

Magnus beamed.

‘Of course! It smells perfect, actually. It’s just been so long since I’ve eaten it’

He reached a hand across the table and took one of hers, squeezing it lightly.

‘Thank you, Cat’

She smiled at him, and then they both reached for their cutlery.

She cautiously took a bite of the rice. It tasted good, if she said so herself. She’d been slightly worried she’d used too much coconut milk. Judging by the look on Magnus’ face, he seemed to think the same.

They chatted quietly for a few minutes before falling into a comfortable silence, each enjoying the food. They’d long since reached the stage in their relationship where they didn’t feel the need to fill every minute with words. The other’s company was enough.

Catarina was absently staring out the window at Pusan, chewing her rice, when she heard a clink as Magnus put his fork down. She was puzzled – he was hardly finished already, was he?

When she looked up, she nearly dropped her own fork in surprise.

‘Magnus? Honey, what’s wrong?’

Magnus had both elbows up on the table, hands covering his mouth. For a second, Catarina was struck with the horrifying thought that the food wasn’t cooked properly and she’d managed to make her friend sick. Then she noticed that Magnus’ eyes were suspiciously shiny.

‘Sorry’ he managed to mumble out. His voice sounded oddly choked.

_He was crying?_

‘Magnus’

Her voice was gentle as she reached across to tug Magnus’ hands away from his mouth. The smile he graced her with was wobbly and had an air of self-deprecation about it. She could see the tears gathering in his eyes.

‘Sorry,’ he repeated. ‘My mother used to make me this. Just a bit of nostalgia, that’s all’

Looking at her friend, Catarina could have cried herself. For as long as she’d known him, Magnus had been the most cosmopolitan person she knew. He spoke nearly thirty languages fluently, and a few more conversationally. He’d lived in more countries than she had ever even visited, and had friends all over the world. Even when she’d met him, he was thousands of miles away from home, and thriving, too.

Somehow, it had never occurred to her that such a person, after so many years of travelling, could still miss home.

‘Oh-oh _shit,_ Magnus, I’m sorry’

She probably should have thought this through. His tears were for his mother and stepfather and home, obviously, but also for himself. Magnus had told her about his childhood a few hundred years ago. She knew the horrible things he had been through - so very different to her own experience, with a mother who loved and protected her.

Magnus waved her apologies away with a bejewelled hand.

‘Don’t be, Cat. The food is absolutely delicious. Exactly the way my mother used to do it. It’s a compliment to your cooking that I’m sitting here blubbering, really’

Catarina smiled slightly, but didn’t let go of his hands. That was a standard “Magnus tactic” for avoiding talking about himself; deflecting with humour and flattery.

Instead, she asked a question, her own food long-forgotten at this point.

‘When was the last time you went back?’

He looked a little more composed now, at least.

‘I only went back once, after I left the first time. 1883. Krakatoa erupted when I was there, and I kind of took that as a sign. Didn’t stay long’

He managed to laugh a little at himself.

‘So you haven’t been there since they got independence, no?’

He shook his head.

‘Maybe you should’, she mused.

Letting go of his hands, Catarina smiled at him as they both went back to their dinner. It was cold by now, but still fine.

Catarina, whose own food had been nearly finished when she’d stopped, was finished long before Magnus. She sat with her arms crossed, gazing idly out the window with her empty glass dangling loosely from her fingers.

When she heard Magnus chair being pushed slightly back from the table, she looked up at him. He was finished.

‘Thank you, Catarina. It was lovely. I’m sorry for that emotional mess. I hope I didn’t spoil our evening’

He still sounded unlike himself.

She had an idea.

‘When do you have to be back in Tangier?’

Magnus shrugged.

‘Whenever, really. You know me. I’m not tied down anywhere’

_Perfect._

‘You know,’ she began, and Magnus waited patiently for her to continue, ‘I’ve never been. To Indonesia, I mean. It’s been a while since I went on holiday. I’ve been thinking of visiting Jakarta, Bali, maybe a few of other spots. But since I don’t know the language………’

She trailed off pointedly, and her heart warmed when she saw the smile beginning to steal over her old friend’s face.

She returned it. ‘I could use a guide, is what I’m trying to say’

Magnus laughed.

‘What sort of dashing gentleman would I be if I let a lady wander a strange country on her own?’

‘Let’s go, then’

Magnus was surprised. ‘Now?’

She shrugged. ‘Why not?’

Standing up, she circled her table and pulled him to his feet. She gestured to an empty spot in the corner of the room.

‘Will you do the honours?’

As Magnus magicked-up the portal, Catarina tidied things up in her tiny kitchen, and locked the front door and windows. She could summon clothes and other things later. She was on leave, so the hospital wouldn’t miss her for a week or two.

When she turned around, Magnus was waiting by the portal, the lights of Pusan shining in the window behind him. Smiling, he held a hand out for her, but she held up a finger.

‘One moment’

She ducked into the kitchen one last time, and when she returned, stashing Magnus’ bottle of wine from earlier into a bag, he laughed delightedly.

‘That’s my girl’

She slipped her hand into his, as warm as it had been all those years ago, running through the streets of a Spanish town.

They stepped through together, moving from the sleepy night lights of Pusan, to the bustling activity of evening in Jakarta.

Three hundred years of being friends with Magnus Bane, Catarina decided, was not nearly long enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
